What Could Have Been
by dancer4813
Summary: What if Dudley was magical? How do the Dursleys find out? Will they treat Harry any better once they do? AU, not likely to be more than a oneshot.


Harry knew something was wrong. Very wrong. Dudley had come back from school at promptly four (as he usually did), but (contrary to the norm) he had been accompanied by Uncle Vernon.

Harry had been working in the front garden, weeding the flower beds because he had begged his Aunt Petunia to let him out of his cupboard for the day. He had been in his cupboard for two weeks, leaving only to go to the bathroom or get his daily rations, and he had been utterly bored. So, when Aunt Petunia finally consented to his requests (tired as she was of his 'incessant whining'), Harry had been quite proud of his accomplishment and ready to do whatever his aunt would have him do.

She had clearly stated her two conditions for his freedom: work outside ('So I won't have you in the way!' she had said) and absolutely, positively no freaky things (the reason he had been locked in his cupboard in the first place).

Harry had promised over and over to follow her stipulations and wasn't even upset when she pushed him out the front door to the yard and slammed it behind him.

So, after what felt like far too many long hours of bending over the dirt and pruweeding flowers, when Harry was taking a break by leaning against a tree and enjoying a cool October breeze, he was able to watch Uncle Vernon's car pull into the driveway.

Now, this wouldn't have been unusual in the slightest, if not for Uncle Vernon's consistent returning from work shortly after six (just in time for dinner). Harry also was pretty sure that it was only about the time when Dudley arrived home from school - which was confirmed by Dudley's appearance when he came around the car behind his father.

But it wasn't Uncle Vernon's early homecoming that bothered Harry, nor the fact that he had driven Dudley home from school when he usually walked home with his group of thugs. No, the thing that bothered the eight-year old was the silence of his relatives' arrival. Neither Dudley nor Uncle Vernon hurled their customary insults at him or even glared at him as they passed. Harry knew something wasn't right.

Carefully following the two rotund males (at a safe distance) as they walked up the garden path and entered the house, Harry crept underneath the living room window, which was open to let a bit of fresh air into the house.

"Hello Dudders dear," Harry heard his Aunt say from the kitchen. "I have some chocolate biscuts all made up for you and your friends, along with a nice pitcher of milk and glasses for you if you-"

She cut herself off suddenly and Harry pictured her horsey face in the pinched expression it wore when she was confused.

"Vernon, what are you doing home so early? Are you and Diddykins all right? Has he gotten hurt? Oh sweetie, are you all right? Do we-"

Uncle Vernon cut her words short, but it was with a murmured expression that Harry couldn't hear.

There was a moment of silence, like there always was when his Aunt and Uncle (or any adults, really) were having a 'silent conversation' that kids weren't meant to hear. The air was thick with tension that was broken when Aunt Pentunia gasped in apparent disbelief.

"No," she whispered, just loud enough for Harry to hear from his hiding place. "No! He can't have! I won't believe it!" she stated in a decisive manner, though her words grew louder and more desperate with each passing second. "I won't believe it Vernon!" she repeated, her voice still rising. "There must be some mistake! He can't- he wouldn't-" She broke down into sobs.

Harry came back to himself as he realized his Aunt was crying. What in the world was making her so upset?

"Duley, go to your room," Uncle Vernon said in a strange voice. Harry felt even more offset - by the strange order and even more by Dudley's silent aquiesence. Something was seriously wrong with his extended family and Harry, being the naturally curious eight-year old that he was, was determined to find out.

xxx

An hour later the four of them sat down to an early dinner. Uncle Vernon had called him in from the garden to prepare dinner, and he had agreed, thinking he would be closer to their conversation and better able to hear what they said.

Unfortunately, it seemed like his Uncle Vernon had decided that the basement was the best place for their conversation. So Harry hadn't heard anything.

"Boy," Uncle Vernon said suddenly halfway through the meal, addressing him for the first time since he had ordered him to fix dinner. "Your Aunt and I have decided," he paused, glancing unsurely at his wife. "We have decided to give you Dudley's second bedroom."

Harry's eyes flicked from his Uncle to his Aunt to his cousin. None of them disagreed and even his cousin didn't look surprised, though Harry was sure that Dudley would normally be kicking and screaming and fighting hand and tooth to keep his second bedroom - one that was full of broken and forgotten toys from his younger years.

When nobody said anything else, Harry just nodded his head and went back to his food - the first true meal he had gotten for two weeks.

"So you'll bring all your things up from your cupboard right after dinner," Uncle Vernon added, a bit belatedly. Harry nodded again.

The meal continued in silence, except for the scrape of cutlery on plates. A short time later, when Harry had finished his measley portion of food that he had served himself (not daring to take more, though his stomach was still growling hungrily), he rose to put his dishes in the sink, but was stopped by Aunt's hand on his wrist.

"Don't you want a bit more food, Harry?"

His mouth dropped open. Never had his Aunt or Uncle offered him more food, content to let Dudley finish off all the food on the table and even the bits that could have been leftovers saved for another day.

He closed his mouth, gingerly took his seat again and looked from his Aunt to his Uncle before hesitantly reaching out his hand to the serving dish. When neither adult told him off, he pulled it closer and helped himself to more food.

xxx

Later that evening Harry was laying on the bed in Dudley's second bedroom, missing his cupboard and the complete darkness it gave him. Even the small amount of light the stars, moon and streetlights gave off was too much and had kept him tossing and turning for hours.

Not that he missed his cupboard entirely, because he had been getting a bit big for it. It was nice to have enough room to stretch out for once and have an actual bed.

He heard the creak of the floor in the Dursley's bedroom and then the murmur of indistinct voices through the wall. Intrigued, he crept next to the wall and put his ear to it, straining to understand what they were saying.

But, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't understand a single word. Harry was about to give up when he saw a vent in front of him. He quickly scurried over and cheered inside his head as he heard his Aunt and Uncle whispering. The words were still quiet, but when he closed his eyes tightly and concetrated hard the words sharpened enough so that he could hear them clearly.

"-tell him Vernon?"

"Not unless it happens again and we are sure. We should just keep up the act and be careful. We don't want to provoke them further."

"But why would they target Dudley?" Aunt Petunia asked, sounding close to tears for the second time that day. "If we're the ones who have done something wrong, why aren't we being punished?"

"That's just the thing. You can't predict these people. Of course, they would target our boy instead of taking the Freak away, just causing more problems for our family!"

"We can't be calling him that anymore, Vernon. That would make Dudley-"

"No it wouldn't. He's not one of them. He's a nice normal boy. Now that they'll see the Freak being treated the way he's supposed to, they'll lay off. Just you wait."

"But Lily was from normal people-"

"Your sister was an odd one, that's the truth. But look at you, Petunia. You're perfectly normal, specially normal. they will be able to see that we've changed, and then they can change Dudley back." There was a definite note of finality in his voice that meant the conversation was over.

Aunt Petunia didn't object, and silence reigned over the whole house.

Harry sat back on his heels. Had something happened to Dudley? It seemed like his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia thought something unfair had been done to Dudley, though they didn't want to mention it.

He nearly groaned aloud in frustration, but caught himself just in time. He wished someone would just tell him what had happened! It couldn't have been too bad... could it?

Harry shook his head silently and climbed back into the bed - so much bigger than he was used to.

Whatever the problem was, everything pointed back to Dudley. If only he could get Dudley to tell him... No. That wouldn't work, no matter how strange Dudley was acting, they were too different to even talk in a 'decent' way (as Mrs. Figg put it sometimes).

_So,_ Harry thought as he finally felt sleep pulling him down for the night, _I'll just have to wait._

xxx

It was about five months after the strange happenings of that mid-October day. Spring was peeking out of it's shell, Harry had survived another Christmas with Aunt Marge, and the Dursleys were almost back to normal.

For a while, Harry remembered, the Dursleys had been careful to not give him jobs and make sure he was well fed. Dudley had been quiet and reserved (well, as much as any eight-year old bully could) and had even stopped his gang from playing "Harry Hunting" when they came over to play, instead finding other neighborhood children to scare and bully during their free time.

But this nicer treatment from his relatives, as all good things seemed to do, hadn't lasted. Aunt Petunia had started giving him chores to do again (though not nearly as many as before) and Dudley had started to regain his edge toward Harry. Which was why Harry was hiding in his bedroom, avoiding Dudley at all costs.

A loud shout brought Harry out of his thoughts and he practically jumped off of his bed. His door slammed open and Dudley marched in, fuming.

"Where is it!" he yelled (or rather screamed) at Harry. "What did you do with it!"

"With what?" Harry asked, glancing from side to side for an escape route.

"My new video game! You obviously took it from me!"

"I didn't take anything from you! And why would I want the game? I don't have anything to play it on!"

Dudley wasn't listening, but had stepped closer to Harry, causing him to shrink against the bedboard.

"I didn't take it!" Harry repeated desperately, frightened by the manic glint in his cousin's eyes that looked scarily similar to his father's. "I swear I didn't!"

"You did! You did take it! Tell me where it is!"

Harry was suddenly slammed into the wall of his bedroom, his head and shoulder leading him so his vision swam with stars and his shoulder crunched unpleasantly. He curled up, expecting another punch, but none came. Instead of Dudley's yells slamming against his eardrums, there was an eerie silence in the room.

He uncurled from the floor and looked up at Dudley through his now-bent glasses. Dudley was standing right where he had been before, staring at his hands in disbelief and horror.

"I-I-I did it a-a-again," Dudley stuttered quietly. "It-it h-happened ag-gain."

Harry was confused. Dudley had always used to hit him. What did he mean it had happened again?

Dudley was still staring at his hands, and Harry was getting more confused by the second. "Why aren't you beating me up right now?" he asked, the question slipping out before he could stop it.

Dudley looked up, eyes wide and breathing ragged. "I-it happened again," he repeated, eyes focusing on Harry's face. "I-" his voice broke and he trembled. "I d-did something freaky."

xxx

**Three years later**

"I don't need to go."

"You do Diddydums, though I don't really want you to. But you'll have fun. I promise. Your Aunt Lily always talked about how exciting Hogwarts was when she came back for the summer. I know you'll like it."

Harry watched the exchange between his Aunt and cousin on Platform nine and three-quarters. A lot had changed in three years, since they had learned Dudley was magic as well. Harry remembered the outrage of his uncle, who had only been calmed down by his wife after screaming and cursing for a very long time. The night after Harry had witnessed his cousin's magical outburst (also the night after his Uncle Vernon's tantrum), Aunt Petunia had sat both him and Dudley down and told them a story about magic and a castle and witches and wizards and a bad man who wanted to hurt Harry and his mom and dad.

So the whole story had come out. It had definitely made life at the Dursleys very different. Dudley didn't hang out with his friends so much and actually started sticking up for Harry sometimes, though why exactly he did it Harry couldn't say. Harry had stopped being treated like scum scraped off the bottom of someone's shoe and Dudley wasn't spoiled as much. He and his cousin were on a relatively equal plane.

"Stay safe, Harry," his Aunt said, breaking into his thoughts as she pulled him into a quick hug, which still felt strange. "And..." she trailed away, seeing her son embrace his father tightly.

She swallowed and raised Harry's chin so he could meet her eyes. "And take care of Dudley, won't you? I don't want him to fight all his own fights, though he is a bit older than you. There will be people picking on him because of his bloodstatus, but I just hope that-" she stopped, seeming to realize she was rambling on. "Just make me proud, Harry," she said, tucking a stray bit of his black hair behind his ear. "Make your parents proud."

Harry nodded seriously, determined to live up to her expectations. She pulled him into a tighter hug and he felt a few tears land on top of his head, but made no mention of them.

The train whistled suddenly, signalling to the people on the platform that it was almost time to go. Aunt Petunia began fussing over Dudley again, while he tried to pull away from her mollycoddling. "Mum! I'll be fine! I promise! No Slytherins are going to get me down! Just you wait and see!" he said, trying to cheer her up.

She gave a watery chuckle, patted his head, and shunted the two of them toward the train. They entered the compartment where their trunks were already stowed and opened the window so they could wave goodbye.

The train pulled out of the station and they hung out of the window until they couldn't see his Aunt or Uncle anymore.

"So, Hogwarts..." Dudley said, staring out the window. Harry nodded silently.

A noise from the door of their compartment drew their attention.

"Is anybody else sitting here? Everywhere else is full?"

It was a tall, red-haired boy who looked very nervous. Harry invited him to sit down and he looked relieved.

"Thank goodness! I never thought I was going to find a spot! My brothers wouldn't let me sit with them 'cuz Percy's with the prefects and Fred and George are hanging out with the rest of the Quidditch team and-" his ears turned pink and he stopped suddenly.

"Sorry. I'm a bit nervous. My name's Ron. Ron Weasley."

"We all are," Dudley said before Harry could say anything. "Don't worry about it. Oh- I'm Dudley Dursley. But you said your brothers are part of a Quidditch team?"

And as Ron and Dudley were immersed in the intricasies of Quidditch, quickly pulling Harry into the conversation, Harry dismissed his thoughts of what his life would be if Dudley didn't have magic. They had seven whole years ahead of them and there wasn't any point on dwelling on what was not as they sped across the English countryside.

* * *

**A/N: So I peronally feel like this is a bit rushed... (which is why it's slightly late to the competition it's entered in... Because I couldn't figure out a good way of following the rules without a multichap. and staying around 2,500 words...)**

**I'm also not sure if this even follows the rules for this assignment... but I think I did my best. As stated in the Summary, this is most likely going to only be a oneshot. (Sorry to those of you who want a whole story!) This is because 1: I have too much to do as it is; 2: I already have stories in progress that I've not been updating recently/at all...; and 3: I would need to pretty much rewrite this as a "first chapter" if I wanted to make it longer. Something I don't really want to do**

**Yeah. So this was written for _Fanfiction, School of Imagination: Transfiguration Asessment 1_**


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